The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center

Dr. J. Michael Lennon, Emeritus Vice President and Emeritus Professor of English at Wilkes University, is Norman Mailer 's official biographer and literary co-executor. He is a founding member and first president of the Norman Mailer Society and maintained a close personal relationship with Mailer for more than thirty years. Lennon has published widely on Mailer, including (with Donna Pedro Lennon ), Norman Mailer: Works and Days( 2000 ), and edited several of Mailer's works, including Pieces and Pontifications( 1982 ), Conversations with Norman Mailer( 1988 ), The Spooky Art: Some Thoughts on Writing( 2005 ), and On God: An Uncommon Conversation( 2007 ).

Lennon’s collection of Mailer correspondence consists of eight folders of outgoing and incoming letters with Mailer. Carbons and photocopies of Lennon’s letters to Mailer date from 1971 to 1993 and include Lennon’s first letter to Mailer regarding Mailer’s appearance with Gore Vidal and Janet Flanner on "The Dick Cavett Show," December 2, 1971. Original typed and handwritten letters from Mailer to Lennon date from 1972 to 1993 and contain Mailer’s comments on his literary and personal activities.

Norman Mailer Papers. The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center